Real Deal

SinkholesA new low for the District

The Adams Morgan sinkhole. Oh, the horror!

Darrow Montgomery

The District’s emergency alert system had dire news for residents in March. A 25-foot-wide sinkhole had appeared in Adams Morgan, and it was only getting bigger. Days after a Florida man had been swallowed whole by a sinkhole under his house, the District’s own sinkhole was an ominous development in the nation’s capital.

The Adams Morgan menace, as it turned out, was actually just a few feet across and about as many deep. The District didn’t have long to be disappointed in its first disaster hole, though, because a more serious sinkhole appeared downtown in May at the intersections of 14th and F streets NW.

Along with backing up rush hour traffic and costing $5 million in repairs, the sinkhole also inspired the requisite Twitter parody account and a novelty T-shirt (“I Survived the 2013 D.C. Sinkhole”). Most importantly, though, the sinkholes proved that, with the right sediment, even downtown D.C can turn into Florida.